16th–19th centuries Until the 17th century, the south-east of the
Kama region remained sparsely populated. According to available archaeological data, the pasture lands on the lands of the modern Leninogorsk region belonged to Muftiari nomads. In 1552, the
Kazan Khanate was conquered by Ivan the Terrible and four years later the
Bashkirs were also incorporated into the growing Russian state. In 1708 these territories became part of the newly formed Kazan province, which included all the middle and lower
Volga and
Ural regions. In the 1730s, the villages of Malaya Bugulma (now the village of Medvedka) and Bolshaya Bugulma (the city of Bugulma) were established as the settlements for soldiers. The boundaries of the region repeatedly changed, and in 1744 these territories were included into the Orenburg province. The borders of the
Kazan and
Orenburg provinces passed along the Cheremshan River, then descended southeast to Kichuya before ascending northeast to
Menzelinsk. In the 1740s, settlers began to move to the lands of the modern Leninogorsk region as a result of the Russification policy pursued by the tsarist government. According to the results of the population census in tsarist Russia carried out in the period from 1744 to 1747, there were only 13 villages in the region (Karataevo, Naderevo, Seitovo, Urmushla, Sary Bikchurovo, Analokovo, Ishtiryak, Karkali, Shugurovo, Toktarovo, Kuakbashevo, Shachili and Izmailovo). However, these villages were not the only settlements in the region, since Christian villages like the Pismyanskaya and Kuvatskaya settlements were not included in the census book of the yasak Tatars. According to the results of the third census of 1761–1762, Kuvatskaya Sloboda had 210 households with a population of 1,083 people, Pismyanskaya Sloboda amounted 109 households with 711 people and Medvedka contained 67 households and 486 people. By that time, new Tatar villages had also appeared, such as Sarabikulovo, Karataevo, Sugushla and Kirligach. In the 1770s, a number of Mordovian and Chuvash villages of Mordovskaya Ivanovka, Karamalka, Kuzaykino and others appeared in these lands. In 1773–1775 a peasant uprising broke out in the Middle Volga region under the leadership of
Yemelyan Pugachev. In October 1773, a riot engulfed Bugulminskoe Vojvodstvo and a total of ten insurgent detachments of about 15 thousand people, armed with 15 cannons occupied the region. After the suppression of the rebellion, a new wave of refugees poured into the territory of the present Leninogorsky district. The villages of Bakirovo, Novy Ishtiryak, Timyashevo, Upper Shirshila, Yultimirovo were subsequently founded as a consequence of this new wave of settlement. In 1775, Catherine the Great initiated an administrative reform and a number of provinces and counties changed their borders. On the basis of these reforms in 1781, the Bugulminsky uyezd was formed which included the territories of modern Leninogorsky, Almetyevsky, Cheremshansky and other districts. In 1781, the Ufa governorship became an independent province, consisting of two regions:
Ufa and
Orenburg. Eight districts were assigned to Ufa, one of which was the Bugulminsky uyezd. By 1785, about 6,000 people lived on the territory of the future Leninogorsky district. Ten years later, the village of Novaya Pismyanka (future city of Leninogorsk) was established within the Bugulminsky uyezd. By 1797, Tatar villages had grown significantly in population. By that time, the population of Bugulma numbered 359 households with 1858 residents, Medvedka contained 99 households and 870 residents, Sarabikulov held 28 households and 178 residents while Seitovo-Kerligach had 40 households and 227 residents. The Samara province which incorporated the Bugulminsky uyezd was formed in 1851 as a result of administrative reforms. By 1860 there were 37 settlements with a population of about 22,230 people in the province and already by 1872 the population had increased to 28,929 people. The formation of most of the large settlements of the Bugulma district had been completed by the end of the 19th century. Following the
Stolypin reforms, a number of new villages had emerged on the territory of the district by 1905, for example, Novo-Elhovo, Akkul, Novaya Chershila, Maryanovka, Malakhovka, Volzhanka and Stepnoy Zai. Five years later in 1910, 55,015 people were living in this area. In February 1935, the Novopismyansky district was formed, which included the Novo-Pismyansky, Staro-Pismyansky, Zai-Karataevsky, Glazovsky, Mikhailovsky, Ivanovsky, Alyoshkinsky and Gorkinsky village councils. In the 1930s, clubs and libraries, amateur art circles, and a collective farm and state farm theater would all be opened in the district. In 1937, the airport “Bugulma” was built seven kilometers from the village of Staraya Pismyanka. The following year, oil exploration works were carried out in the southeast of Tatarstan. Soon the first settlement of oil workers, Zelyonaya Roshcha appeared in the Leninogorsky district. At the beginning of the
Great Patriotic War, about 10 thousand Tatars volunteered to go the front. It has been established that 6,789 soldiers from the Leninogorsk region perished in the war, with 12 of them being awarded honors as Heroes of the
Soviet Union — Gilmi Bagautdinov Gilmi, Gazinur Gafiatullin, Ivan Denisov, Ivan Zavarykin, Ibragim Murzin, Samat Sadriev, Grigory Ushpolis, Akram, Islam Khalikov, Misbakh Khaliulin, Evstafiy Yakovlev and Vasily Yanitsky, three more received the title of full holders of the Order of Glory – Gabdulla Matygullin, Mikhail Alaev and Yakov Nikolaev. Shortages of fuel during the Great Patriotic War led to research expeditions in the south-east of the republic. On August 2, 1943, experts discovered the Shugurovskoye oil field at a depth of about 750 meters. A few weeks later, the first oil gusher with a flow rate of 20 tons per day was established there. By a decree of the Government of the USSR dated March 11, 1944, it was decided to continue exploration work and build an industry on the previously discovered oil field, resulting in the opening of the Shugurovsky enlarged field on May 30, 1945. At the end of January 1947, drilling of well No. 3 began near the village of Timyashevo in the Romashkinskaya area, located 7 km from Novaya Pismyanka. In the same year, the well started producing up to 60 tons of oil per day, then up to 120 tons. Thus, the Romashkinskoye oil field provided a powerful incentive for the development of the regional economy. In 1950, the
Bugulmaneft and
Tatburneft trusts were organized, and the construction of a new workers' settlement began. On August 18, 1955, by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, the working settlement Novaya Pismyanka was transformed into a city and received the name of the leader of the revolution — Leninogorsk. Later the Novo-Pismyanskiy region was renamed Leninogorsky. In October 1959, parts of the Shugurovsky district with Staro-Varvarinsky, Spiridonovsky, Mordva-Ivanovsky, Kerligachevsky, Kuzaikinsky, Kuakbashsky, Urmashlinsky, Sarabikulovsky, Nizhne-Chershelinsky, Mordva-Karmalinsky, Staro-Kuvushinsky, Novo-Kuvashinsky, Staro-Ishtiryakovsky, Chutinsky, Novo-Serezhkinsky, Urdalinsky, and Mukmin-Karataevsky village councils along with the Stepno-Zaysky village council merged with the Staro-Pismyansky and Savochkinsky village councils to form the Pismyansky Soviet. ==Administrative and municipal status==